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GPs win big at Stronger Medicare Awards
Clinics and GPs have been declared ‘Medicare Champions’ at a ceremony celebrating those providing the very best primary care.
Members of the Inala Primary Care team, who were one of 20 Medicare Champions awarded at the Stronger Medicare Awards.
Individual GPs, practice managers, and medical centres have all been recognised and celebrated for their exceptional primary healthcare delivery as part of the 2024 Stronger Medicare Awards.
The awards were launched earlier this year to celebrate the 40th anniversary of Medicare and were designed to recognise the role of primary care in ‘providing accessible and high-quality healthcare to all Australians’.
Deemed ‘Medicare Champions’, the 20 winners were announced at a ceremony at Canberra’s Parliament House on Monday, with the GPs and primary care team winners being:
- Dr Lorraine Anderson – Medical Director, Kimberley Aboriginal Medical Services, Western Australia
- Dr Miranda Hann – GP, Ochre Health, Tasmania
- Dr Dong Hua – Practice Principal and Director, Kenyon Street Medical Centre, New South Wales
- Dr Lester Mascarenhas – GP, Utopia Refugee Health, Victoria
- Dr Andrew Palfreman – GP, Watson General Practice, Australian Capital Territory
- Cabrini Asylum Seeker and Refugee Health Hub – Victoria
- Inala Primary Care – Queensland
- Homeless Healthcare Medical Respite Centre – Perth
- Next Practice Canberra – Australian Capital Territory
- Pramana Medical Centre – Western Australia
- Street Side Medics – New South Wales and Victoria
- Swift Street Medical Centre Antenatal clinic – New South Wales
To be named a Medicare Champion, the winners had to fulfil several selection criteria, including providing a significant contribution to patient-centred primary care services, delivering better patient outcomes through innovative ideas, and working with diverse or vulnerable communities.
A total of 35 award finalists were recognised from across Australia, before the Medicare Champions were chosen.
One of the newly crowned Medicare Champions was Inala Primary Care, which delivers critical services to some of Queensland’s most disadvantaged patients.
The centre was recognised for its innovation and commitment to serve a diverse and vulnerable community and its development of innovative models of care, such as beacon clinics, and a nurse-led care model for culturally and linguistically diverse communities.
Inala Primary Care CEO Tracey Johnson said the award is more than just recognition for the team’s work.
‘It is a testament that the last 18 years of effort by our team are understood for being of national significance for the innovation we have created and shared,’ she said.
‘In doing our work, we are paid less by a system which rewards quick easy care for those who often have choice about support.
‘We all need to step up and meet the challenges of an increasingly older and more complex patient population. Being imitated would be the ultimate recognition.’
Dr Miranda Hann is a GP in Hobart and has been recognised for the impact she has made to the care of the LGBTQIA+ community through providing trauma-informed safe spaces for patients who would otherwise have limited care options.
She was the first GP in Tasmania to offer informed consent for patients accessing gender-affirming hormone therapy.
Dr Hann is also a strong advocate for the LGBTQIA+ community in Tasmania and has worked with government to address gender bias in healthcare, end conversion practices and ensure safety and access for LGBTQIA+ people.
‘I am deeply grateful to be creating safe healthcare spaces and networks in a state that has progressed from the worst to best government policies for LGBTQIA+ people over the last 30 years,’ she said.
‘It is a privilege to watch my patients not only survive but thrive through their life journeys.’
Dr Lorraine Anderson is a 30-year GP and Medical Director at Kimberley Aboriginal Medical Services in Western Australia.
In her remote region, she has been directly responsible for five remote primary healthcare clinics delivering culturally appropriate primary healthcare services, tailored to the needs of the local Aboriginal community.
Dr Anderson is the first Aboriginal person appointed to a national health technology advisory committee and was recognised for her leadership in delivering quality healthcare to Aboriginal communities.
‘I’ve had many years in the primary care field, and it is a great honour to be nominated for this award,’ she said.
‘In particular recognising the never-ending hard work that goes into this job, especially in the rural and remote sector – by everyone, not just myself.’
Dr Dong Hua was recognised for providing accessible and culturally appropriate care, and for supporting vulnerable patients and those experiencing financial hardship.
Dr Lester Mascarenhas was celebrated for opening Utopia Refugee and Asylum Seeker Health in Melbourne, through which he has established a unique model of care, co-designed with his community, to support the complex and often unmet needs.
Dr Andrew Palfreman is a Canberra GP who was recognised for his work throughout the COVID-19 pandemic and his set up of a temporary building in the car park of his practice to provide a safe space to treat infectious patients.
The Cabrini Asylum Seeker and Refugee Health Hub was celebrated for providing free or bulk-billed care for around 400 patients from 45 different countries, with the team providing quality care to a highly vulnerable population, with no out-of-pocket costs.
Homeless Healthcare’s Medical Respite Centre was awarded for its work as the first service of its kind in Australia and provides health and social services to people without a home or suitable conditions to manage their health effectively.
Next Practice Canberra in Deakin was recognised for its model of multidisciplinary teams forming integrated practice units, including a team of GPs, nurses and nurse practitioners, patient advocates, a practice pharmacist, social workers, diabetes educators, an oral hygienist, dietitian, exercise physiologist, geriatrician and a physiotherapist.
Pramana Medical Centre was celebrated for developing an innovative system of care, including weekly home visit clinics, with a nurse, GPs and social worker providing families with health assessments, medical treatments and connecting them with social support services.
Mobile general practice clinic Street Side Medics was recognised for its innovative approach to reaching the homeless and vulnerable, through collaboration with charities, shelters, and other services.
Swift Street Medical Centre’s Antenatal Clinic was awarded for its care of more than 450 women in just one year, providing bulk-billed services including home visits and support for women from the early stages of pregnancy to post-partum.
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